Anomalies and Curiosities of MedicineGould, George M. (George Milbrey)
Science
Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
Gould, George M. (George Milbrey)
Abnormalities, Human; Medicine -- Anecdotes
examined them in Boston, at the Harvard University, in 1829. At that
time Eng was 5 feet 2 inches and Chang 5 feet 1 1/2 inches in height.
They presented all the characteristics of Chinamen and wore long black
queues coiled thrice around their heads, as shown by the accompanying
illustration. After an eight-weeks' tour over the Eastern States they
went to London, arriving at that port November 20, 1829. Their tour in
France was forbidden on the same grounds as the objection to the
exhibition of Ritta-Christina, namely, the possibility of causing the
production of monsters by maternal impressions in pregnant women. After
their European tour they returned to the United States and settled down
as farmers in North Carolina, adopting the name of Bunker. When
forty-four years of age they married two sisters, English women,
twenty-six and twenty-eight years of age, respectively. Domestic
infelicity soon compelled them to keep the wives at different houses,
and they alternated weeks in visiting each wife. Chang had six children
and Eng five, all healthy and strong. In 1869 they made another trip to
Europe, ostensibly to consult the most celebrated surgeons of Great
Britain and France on the advisability of being separated. It was
stated that a feeling of antagonistic hatred after a quarrel prompted
them to seek "surgical separation," but the real cause was most likely
to replenish their depleted exchequer by renewed exhibition and
advertisement.
A most pathetic characteristic of these illustrious brothers was the
affection and forbearance they showed for each other until shortly
before their death. They bore each other's trials and petty maladies
with the greatest sympathy, and in this manner rendered their lives far
more agreeable than a casual observer would suppose possible. They both
became Christians and members or attendants of the Baptist Church.
Figure 31 is a representation of the Siamese twins in old age. On each
side of them is a son. The original photograph is in the Mutter Museum,
College of Physicians, Philadelphia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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